Sine Qua Non
by Ninalb
Summary: An alternate take on the plot of the Tournament of Elements. A short little Oneshot on what could have happened when Master Chen locked Pixal and Zane up in his dungeon.
1. Scrapped

"Zane!?" Pixal jolted awake to find herself chained and behind bars.

She gathered her surroundings and tried to find where she was.

"Who's Zane?" A voice replied from the next cell over.

Pixal could recognize the voice immediately even though he was out of her sight.

"Zane!" Pixal said, feeling relieved, "You're okay."

"I'm Zane? That sounds...familiar." Zane's distant voice replied.

"Zane, you need to remember who you are," Pixal said, struggling against the chains, "You have friends and family that are looking for you. They have come here in search of you."

"Friends? Family?" Zane replied, sounding unfamiliar to the concept.

"Yes, I heard that they are competing in the tournament here. They are competing to be able to find you." Pixal said, studying the chains intensely.

"Hey!" One of the guards that was standing outside her dusty cell barked, "Keep it down in there! You're interrupting our goldfish game!...Have any eights?"

"Zane," Pixal said a little quieter, "Your brothers are here to rescue you. You died protecting them and rebuilt yourself. You have to remember...for me."

"I think...I think I can remember, a little bit. I think I can picture my brother's faces. One of them is very old. How old am I?" Zane asked.

"No, he is your Sensei. And your brothers aren't biologically your brothers. But you are close enough to be ones." Pixal said.

"Did you hear that Cole and Jay are fighting?" Pixal caught one of the guards say.

"Ya, it sucks that we have to stay down here." Another voice sighed.

A face appeared between the bars of the cell, purple snakes drawn around his face.

"They can't get out of here. Nobody even knows where this place is. I think it is fine if we leave them for a few seconds to watch the fight." The guard said.

Pixal listened to the sound of footsteps recede and grow fainter ad the guards got further and further away. A couple seconds was all she needed. A panel in her arm moved out of the way and a tool, once used for fixing and repairing Zane, was now going to free her and Zane. She jabbed it into the keyhole that was on her chains around her wrists. After a few tries, she heard a click. The shackle on her left popped open and clattered noisily to the ground.

She waited for the guards to rush in here and attack her, but none came.

"What are you doing?" Zane asked.

"Getting you and me out of here, frosty." Pixal said, using Zane's old nickname, "We are going to find Cole, Jay, Kai, and Lloyd."

"Frosty?" Zane said slowly, "Cole? Jay. Kai! And Lloyd! I remember! I remember them."

Zane smiled happily as familiar words triggered thousands of memories to come flooding back. How could he have ever forgotten. How could he have ever forgotten them?

"Yes!" Pixal cheered happily, for Zane had remembered and she broke through the last handcuff.

She quickly ran to the door of the cell and quickly unlocked it.

"So, I didn't always use to look like this," Zane said, somewhat sadly.

"Yes, I know," Pixal said, running through to the next cell three cells down. Exactly where she calculated Zane's voice to be coming from, "But you have been upgraded now. It's okay. We'll get through this together."

She quickly cast a couple looks around before getting to work on picking the next lock. With a click, she burst through, only to be meet by glowing screen light.

"Zane?" Pixal asked, looking around.

"Zane, you're-" Pixal said, stunned.

"Yes, I'm scrapped," Zane said sadly.

Pixal walked gingerly over to the screen, stepping carefully over his scrapped parts. Limbs lay on the ground. His arms strewn, hands open, almost as if to grasp something he could never reach. There were plates of titanium laying all over the floor, gears, bent and broken, some even split in half, spilled over in heaps. One of his cyan eyes was left on the floor, now gray and unseeing.

She tried to hold back the tears as she walked over to a table where a small microchip containing Zane's blue glowing power source was compressed into, was plugged into a very primitive computer.

"They wanted me to tell them where I could find the ninja." Zane said bitterly, "I told them they wouldn't get the information even if they pulled me apart piece by piece. So they did. And they tried to wipe my memory."

Pixal lightly touched one of Zane's hands. She had never seen such carnage. Parts of him were lying here and everywhere. Grey and silver liquid leaked from some of the parts, spilling into puddles onto the floor.

"They said, if I didn't tell them, they would pull you apart too." Zane said, "So I told them. I told them that they could find the Ninja in New Ninjago city. And that that was all they were going to get from me. I couldn't let them do that to you too."

"You're scrapped." Pixal sobbed, putting her hands on her face.

"Yes. I am. There is nothing that you can do about this. In a little while, the power in my source will fade and the element of ice might be passed to someone else..one day. Sooner or later, hopefully." Zane said.

"We-we were supposed to be together forever." Pixal sobbed.

"I'm sorry." Zane said, trying not to cry, "But this is where my story ends. You need to find the ninja. You need to get back safely."

Pixal reached out and touched the screen, trying to touch him, be with him once more. Zane lifted his hand slowly and touched his side of the screen, and smiled slightly.

"I really sorry, that I wasn't strong enough." Zane said, his eyes dropping to the ground, "Forget me. Be happy, don't dwell on the lack of my existence. Instead, cherish yours because that will be me cherishing you. But you must go. We both know that the longer you stay here, the less chance of making it out uncaught. You need to go."

"We will always be together." Pixal smiled.

"Yes, in your heart," Zane said, quoting a phrase that is brothers told him often.

"No. We'll always be together," Pixal said, unplugging Zane's microchip and inserting it into her drive on the left side of her chest.

"Pixal...You plugged me in?" Zane said, blinking onto Pixal's screen, "How did you know that we were compatible?"

"Because we always will be." Pixal smiled turning towards the door.

Now all she had to do was make it back past the room of carnage and mangled pieces.

She started to step gingerly across the room, missing that Clouse had come in from a second door in the back.

"PIXAL! WATC-" Zane shouted suddenly, warning and blinking signs blaring around her vision.

Pixal turned quickly, but it was too late. Clouse had already pressed his taser gun to the back of her neck. The sudden excess amount of electricity shorted her systems, and she flopped to the ground, short-circuited.

"Next time," Clouse hissed, grabbing one of the guards that was accompanying him by the cuff of his shirt, "Make sure that you actually stay and do your job and lock the android up in chains and locks that she can't break through?"


	2. Found But Not Yet Saved

Cole walked down the long corridors, shackle around his waist. Doors stretched along there, some of them in better shape than others. He had stayed in one of them before he was 'employed' to make noodles. Employed wasn't really the word. More like taken against his will and forced to make food to that he could get food. No food without making food. Karloff was ambling in front of him, the person he had spent the most time with. Karloff wasn't a bad person, nor held a grudge against Kai for doing what he did, although it was very wrong in Cole's eyes. However, he hadn't known this was going to happen to Karloff, and Karloff only blamed Master Chen, since he was the one who took his powers, not Kai. Although his speech was stunted and sometimes masked in his accent, it made Cole feel better.

Karloff had also apologized for being grouchy on the boat to them. Tension and anxiety were making him high strung. He needed the money back at home. He needed greatly. So when another contestant wanted to go earlier. The idea of taking one out before it started seemed like a good one. Also, he was in the mood for a fight.

Another day, another work shift making noodles. Had he known that Master Chen's food was made by practically slave labor, he would have never eaten at that place. Heck, he would do everything in his power to be it shut down.

As he was walking down the corridor he heard a familiar voice.

"I can't break through it. There's only so much a tool meant for fixing things can do to break things," He heard a voice sound from one of the cells.

It sometimes sounded too high to be Zane's voice, but he still hoped.

" _Maybe when he rebuilt himself, he made his voice pitch a lot higher?_ "

"Karloff, cover for me," Cole whispered to him.

"Don't make trouble Cole. Only make noodles, not trouble," Karloff warned, begrudgingly pretending to bend down and tie his shoe.

"Zane?" Cole whispered pulling as far as the chain would let him.

"Cole!?" Pixal whispered back.

Cole peered into the cell to see Pixal chained to the back wall.

"I'm so happy to find one of you! I'm going to get you out of here." Cole said, noticing that the guard was starting to get suspicious.

"Hold tight." He stepped back into line so when the guard came down Cole was standing there smiling and waving.

"Things are looking up Karloff. Things are looking up." Cole smiled.


	3. Dreams Aren't Real

**I'm keeping the chapters small for this story, but since they are nice and bite-sized, I'll probably post one each day.**

Pixal was alerted by the sounds of footsteps coming down the hall. Perhaps Cole was coming back. Her hope was proven wrong when the swung open and Clouse strolled in.

"Hello, robot." He sneered, "I'm not here to dwaddle. I want one simple thing. Tell me where the ninja are."

"Why are you so obsessed with finding the ninja?" Pixal asked.

"How else am I to invite them to the Tournament of Elements." Clouse stated, "You'd think you robots were smarter with than that. Now tell me. Do it quickly and I won't loose my temper. Otherwise..."

"Never," Pixal said.

"Tsk, tsk." Clouse answered, "So stubborn. Just like Zane."

" _Where was Zane._ " Pixal thought.

"One last chance," Clouse growled.

"You already know my answer." Pixal said, "To continue trying is pointless."

"So be it." Clouse laughed, "More fun for me anyways."

He pulled out and screwdriver and moved closer to the android.

"Now what first..." Clouse mused, "How about-"

Pixal didn't even here the rest of the sentence as it was drowned out by her scream as Clouse stabbed the screwdriver into her eye.

* * *

Pixal jolted awake, slamming against the chains. She was breathing fast and her mechanic heart was "racing".

"It's okay," Zane comforted, "It was just a nightmare."

"What was that?!" Pixal asked, calming down.

"It was a dream," Zane answered.

"Dreaming is terrible!" Pixal said, new to the whole dreaming thing.

"No, not all dreams are bad. Bad ones are called nightmares. Most of them are good." Zane explained.

"It felt so...real," Pixal said.

"Yes, they do," Zane said.

"Dreaming is so interesting." Pixal sighed, leaning back against the wall, "I've always wondered what dreaming was like."

"It's like living another life when you are asleep," Zane said.

They sat in silence for a second as Pixal's breathing slowed and her heart returned to normal.

"What happened," Pixal asked.

"What do you mean?" Zane inquired, cocking his head.

"You never told me what happened when they tore you apart. That was your nightmare wasn't it?" Pixal explained.

"Yes." Zane sighed, "I'll tell you what happened."


	4. Twice Stolen From

**Hey, I know I haven't updated this in a while. I haven't forgotten about it, but it's not the main focus. Also, there might be little spelling errors since I wrote this around 1 am. Also, I randomly in the middle of the night switched from the third person to first and I might not have fixed them all. Let me know and I will fix them along with any other spelling errors. I will try to update this more often for the people who read this and are waiting for a new chapter.**

 **I will try to update this more often for the people who read this and are waiting for a new chapter.**

 **Speaking of which, this chapter goes to PixelatedNinjas. I was just checking the reviews since I haven't checked in a while. And to see that you still want me to update this, still after so long if it being inactive, I decided that I would get on it and it post this for you and all the other people who are still waiting for an update.**

 **So enjoy!**

* * *

Zane blinked, it seemed that time had skipped him by. His last memory and what was going on right now where not the same. They didn't fit together, it felt like he was trying to jam two puzzle pieces together when they obviously didn't fit. His vision kept focusing and unfocusing which felt exactly like what his thoughts were doing.

" _What had been happening last?_ "

He had been fighting someone. Someone who he didn't know. Someone who obviously had it out for him. He was weaving, dodging attacks as this man, wearing a large red Asian conical hat. He also was wearing a large brown strip of cloth over his left eye, a marksman's aim in the middle where his eye should stand. He held two katanas, that he could get a better look at if the man wasn't trying to impale him with it.

Now that he was looking closer, it seemed that the man wasn't really trying to hurt him, more herding him towards...

Someone grabbed him from behind. Knocked him to the floor, pinned his arms uncomfortably behind his back, almost to the point that it felt that he was going to break them off their rotating accesses.

"Careful, we want it alive, or fully functional I guess," One of them chided, coming from the distance, probably the eye patch guy.

"So, alive doesn't mean it can be a little dented," The other commented.

"Just do what I say, you owe me one." Eye patch said gruffly.

"You never let me forget, Ronin," Not-Ronin said.

"Shh, never say names around the persons and especially machines that you are hunting," Ronin hissed.

"Whatever, _Ronin,_ "

A growl resounded.

"Uh, are you the new threat taking over Ninjago?" Zane asked him, feeling that he should at least know what was going on if he was going to be kidnapped.

Just got a new body and was still learning the kinks of it when he was attacked, his fighting was sloppy, all over the place, he couldn't remember all of the new features, there was too many to remember, almost couldn't remember how to walk, his new body was lighter and was a little bit taller than his old one. He felt like a baby deer on new legs.

"We are not a 'threat' to Ninjago, just to you, we just here to collect a bounty from Master Chen, and your head is the one on the list," Not-Ronin told him.

"Ow!" The guy yelped, as Ronin knocked him in the head with the hilt of his sword.

"You and your loose lips," Ronin growled.

And then it just cut into what he was seeing in front of my eyes. A piece was missing, which meant...that something had to happen to make him shut down. That would explain it all.

Blunt Trauma. That would explain the massive sized headache that grilled his mind over and over again every second. Probably had a good sized dent in his head. That would also explain his vision's inability to focus. His self-repair system must have just past the point where it didn't need to spend all his energy repairing the injury, just enough for him to release himself from shutting down.

Sigh.

" _Now that I'm here, I wonder where here is. Wonder why I am not getting the correct coordinates for my location. But it says that I'm on a remote deserted island. One that is almost inaccessible. Great, brand new and things are already broken._ "

He was poorly chained a post, not that he was complaining, but he was surrounded by skulls. Massive piles that spilled over each other around the perimeter They creeped him out. It wasn't the skulls, not he knew much about human anatomy and it was nothing new. However, it was the fact that these skulls had to belong to somebody. The were obviously real, with the amount that was in here, a lot never made it out. He hoped that he wouldn't be adding his robot skulls to the pile, not that he really had a skull.

A clink at the door alerted his attention, which the door creaked open following that.

A man, with a strange headdress, walked in. It looked like a snake's head, with its big fangs poised over his face, and long purple tails running down along his head. Maybe the head was even serpentine.

"Welcome Zane, master of ice," He laughed, clapping his hands, raising his giant, also snake themed, staff right in front of his face, "And thank you for so graciously giving me the element of ice and the key to getting your brothers to come here."

"Wha-?" Zane murmured, still a little disoriented.

His head was swimming, the headache trying to override all of his thoughts. His body itself was disorienting. It didn't fit right, it just felt like he was in the wrong skin.

" _More on that thought later,_ " He told himself, pushing the thought to the back of his mind.

The staff glowed and Zane felt something pierce his heart. A sharp pain made him gasp, it was like someone was trying to pull it out of his chest, through all the cords, wires, and titanium. A white mist floated back into the sphere which was held between the jaws of another serpent head in the staff.

"What did you do to me?" He choked out in a pained, airless voice.

He felt drained as he slumped forward, the chain slightly rattling. He was gasping, not that his lungs felt that there was a lack of air, but there was a lack of something.

"What did you do?" Zane asked again.

He pulled himself back into a straight standing position, placing a hand on his chest. It still ached with a pain, the kind of pain when you lose something, someone. A strangling, engulfing pain.

"Oh, nothing," The snake man said, "I just borrowed your ice powers. For forever."

He laughed, giggling like a child.

" _Ice powers? Gone?_ "

He was having a hard time using them anyway, he could barely walk let alone wield the power of ice. He still attempted to use them anyway, there was nothing. Not even the feeling of them being there. Not even the cold, rippling, soothing sensation of his powers flowing inside of him.

"Oh, don't worry. You won't be needing them. I was going to let you compete in the tournament, but now that I think about it. That won't be such a good idea." Snake man said thoughtfully.

"CLOUSE!"

"Yes, Master Chen?"

A man with black hair and a black mustache with black rings around his eyes stepped in.

"Get the information out of him," Master Chen ordered, waving his hand, before casually strolling out of the room.

"It will be my pleasure," Clouse answered, making a whistling noise.

With a hiss, a giant purple snake slithered into the room. It coiled around Clouse's fee and made a low, content rumbling noise when Clouse rubbed it on its head.

"So, do you want to take the easy way or the hard way?" Clouse asked him, as the snake started to wind around his feet.


	5. Cole-lateral Damage

**5th Chapter in the Sine Qua Non story! We are around half way to the end of this story. It was originally just a one-shot but now I guess it's become a little more than that. I know that it probably won't make it over 10 chapters since I shouldn't allow it because then it would become a little bland. Just depends on how much of the content in put in each chapter and where I decided to break it up, how many chapters there are. But I know that you guys will be reading to the end! (Unless I do something really terrible like have all the characters die, and then get reincarnated into telephones. - Next story. JK ;P)**

 **PixelatedNinjas-** ** _I sure hope so. Have a lot more coming up! Including the finish of Zane's story._**

 **Erio99-** ** _AWWW, thanks. Glad it makes you so happy._**

 **StoriesAreMagic- _DUN DUN DUN! WRONG! ZANE IS ACTUALLY AN IMPOSTER ZANE CREATED FROM HIS MEMORIES AND HE'S TORN APART AND THE REAL ZANE IS DEAD, BUT STUCK IN THE COMPUTER! OVERLORD IS ZANE TRYING TO- BLAHABLAHABLHAB. Nope, I'm kidding. I'm not even sure what I just wrote even makes sense. Imma just roll with it._**

* * *

"Pixal!" Pixal heard a harsh whisper.

Zane cut off in the middle of his story, and they waited, wondering if they had really heard it.

"Pixal!" The whisper came more urgently.

"Cole?" Pixal asked tentatively.

"Ya, it's me," Cole said, his face cautiously peeking through the bars.

A click sounded from outside as Cole slipped into the room, closing the door behind him with another click.

"Shhh," Cole said, pressing up against the walls, creases of worry etched into his face.

They waited as they could hear the sound of footsteps in the corridor. The methodic rhythm of shuffling feet echoing down the hallways, off beat with the second one. They seemed to slow down by the door but didn't seem to halt. Nor they check into the room. Only cast their shadows in between the bars as they walked by.

Cole let out a breath of relief as they faded from the distance, face softening before spreading into a grin.

"Okay," He said, coming towards them, "How are you doing?"

"Feeling a little tingling from the taser," Pixal replied.

"Taser?" Cole repeated.

"Ya, Clouse, found out that I was trying to escape with Zane," Pixal told him.

"Zane?!" Cole asked excitedly, moving closer to the both of them, "Where is he?"

"If only he knew I was so close yet so far," Zane sighed from Pixal's mainframe.

Pixal gave him an apologetic look, but couldn't do much else for the nindroid.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Pixal asked him, clasping her hands together nervously.

She wasn't sure how Cole would react to the news. The last thing he needed was more bad news.

"What do you mean 'are you sure', of course, I want to know," Cole assured her, putting his hands on his hips.

Pixal looked at Cole then at Zane in her mainframe. Zane gave a slight shrug but offered no other help on the situation. He would let her decide whether or not to tell him. She would tell him. He deserved to know. He was his brother after all.

"He's in here," She told him, patting her chest where she had inserted Zane's microchip.

"He's dead?!" Cole asked, thinking she was referring that he would always be in her heart.

"No, no," Pixal hurried to answer, getting a sigh of relief from Cole, "He's...it's better if I just show you,"

"Okay, show me the way," Cole answered, reaching for the door.

Pixal pulled Zane's microchip out and took Cole's hand. She placed into his hand and looked up at his face to carefully monitor his reaction.

"Wha-?" Cole said, face wrinkling into a confused frown.

He didn't understand. What did this have to do with Zane?

"That's what's left of Zane," Pixal told him, biting her lip.

She watched Cole's expression of confusion change into one of sadness. He started to droop like a flower deprived water. His usually steady, calm demeanor seemed to crumble away at his sadness. He felt the edges of the microchip, it's square-like shape, its prongs where it conveyed information, and of course, Zane's glowing power source.

"Jay can fix this. Jay's great at repairing robots, especially Zane," Cole told himself, he stood up straighter, looking determined.

" _He's just assuring himself that this would be okay. Denial. One of the stages of grief,_ " She recounted, she knew this was going to happen.

Pixal gently took the microchip out of Cole's hand and inserted it back in.

"He can rebuild himself right?" Cole turned to her.

"I suppose. I don't know really." Pixal shrugged.

"He's not suffering, right?" Cole asked softly.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. It might be better not to know. Ignorance is bliss they say.

"You can ask him yourself. He's in my mainframe." Pixal told him, "I can see him. And he can see everything that I can see. He can hear it too."

"So...you have my Zane, my brother, in your head? Running around in your vision and stuff?" Cole asked.

"Technically yes," Pixal told him.

"So, are you suffering?" Cole asked.

"Hmm, he says 'not really',' Pixal said.

"So, I can't talk to him, talk to him," Cole sighed.

"Unfortunately no," Pixal told him, "You can't talk to him directly, but I can tell you what he says,"

"Okay, guess that's better than nothing," Cole said.

"Hey Zane," Cole said, leaning down and looking straight into Pixal's eyes as if he could see Zane sitting there.

"Hello Cole," Pixal said, "You are looking well,"

"How are you doing?" Cole asked him.

"Feeling a lighter than usual," Pixal repeated, "Missing a few parts as you can notice."

"A few is a bit of an understatement, Frosty." Cole couldn't help at Zane's dry sense of humor.

It felt good, even though he couldn't see or really hear Zane. But that it didn't matter. Just being in his presence was enough. Enough for now. He would want more later, he'd want to see and hear him. To be able to put his arm around his shoulder or lean on him while enjoying a good laugh. But for now, it was enough.

"So much has changed, so much has happened since you've been gone." Cole sighed, sinking down against the wall and putting his head in his hand.

"So much has gotten out of hand. So much has gotten out of my hands. I don't even know what to do and I'm supposed to lead this team." Cole glanced at his rough calloused hands. Developed from years of training with Sensei, from his scythe, from hanging on in tough situations.

"Don't worry, we can get through this. We just have to get the team back together. When we're together we can do anything. Like all the other times, right? Touch his shoulder," Pixal said.

"Oh, you mean that I should touch his shoulder," Pixal said, now placing a hand on Cole's shoulder and earning a small smile from Cole.

"You don't even know how deep in we are," Cole said.

"Care to fill me in? I've been spending the past month in a craggy dungeon," Pixal said, "Not much news gets down here."

"Before I do, you've gotta tell me how this happened," Cole said, gesturing to him and Pixal.

"Okay," Pixal said, "But we might want to keep our voices on low since we do not want to be found. Getting tasered is very jarring."

"You can say that again," Cole laughed, taking a seat in a corner of a room, "Plus a lot of people and a presumably a snake are looking for me right now,"


End file.
